Arizona has received word from federal officials allowing the state to start implementation of the first phase of Gov. Jan. Brewer's plan to reduce Medicaid enrollment to help balance the state budget.

Arizona officials await federal clearance to take the first concrete step to reduce the state's Medicaid program — an enrollment freeze that starting Sunday would prevent new signups by people hammered by large health care expenses.

Dozens of hopeful medical marijuana patients got their medical marijuana recommendations April 15 at a large medical marijuana expo in Glendale, but the recommendations signify what may become a struggle to allow only legitimately ill people into the medical marijuana program, and to discipline or strip the licenses from doctors who wantonly sign marijuana recommendations.

The Arizona Department of Health Services made the state’s medical marijuana rules official today by submitting them to the Secretary of State’s Office, albeit with a few slight alterations from the previous “final” version of the rules they released March 28.

A small detail in the state’s medical marijuana rules might allow unregulated hemp production. The perceived loophole, one hopeful hemp farmer says, was created by the Health Department’s lack of input from pot botany experts during the department’s rulemaking process.